Knox County Through The Eastern Eye

The original name of 150-acre Mirror Lake, at the southern base of Mt. Hosmer, was Oyster River Pond; the Oyster River rises in the lake and flows into the St. George’s River in Warren. The History of Camden and Rockport, Maine, published in 1907, described Mirror Lake in the late 1800s as having “water of extraordinary purity.” With the founding of the Camden & Rockland Water Company in the 1880s, it became the water supply for Camden and Rockport as well as most of Rockland and Thomaston.

According to Philip Conkling’s book, Where the Mountains Meet the Sea, “Camden’s water used to come from Megunticook River, but as the river became more industrialized and therefore contaminated, a new source was found in the pure waters of Mirror Lake, which had not been developed in order to preserve the purity and clarity of the water. Three years were spent laying cast iron piping, and water reached Rockport from the lake for the first time on June 16, 1887, and Camden one day later. In 1901 a standpipe was erected on the side of Mt. Battie to hold 575,000 gallons and improve water delivery.”